[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 188 (Thursday, November 29, 2018)]
[House]
[Page H9697]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           EYE DONATION MONTH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Ruiz) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. RUIZ. Mr. Speaker, it is my privilege to acknowledge November as 
Eye Donation Month, dedicated to increasing awareness of the need to 
register as an eye, organ, and tissue donor.
  Since 1983, the Eye Bank Association of America, EBAA, and each of 
its 75-member eye banks across the U.S. have dedicated this month to 
honoring the Nation's eye donors and their families, and to celebrate 
the transformative impact of corneal transplants on the lives of their 
recipients.
  With a 97 percent success rate, corneal transplants are the Nation's 
most successful organ transplant procedures. Since the Association's 
founding in 1961, nearly 2 million corneal tissue recipients have 
regained their sight.
  In 2017, EBAA member eye banks recovered 135,203 corneas from 68,565 
donors across the United States. This made it possible to provide the 
gift of sight to approximately 51,000 men, women, and children in the 
U.S., and over 26,000 recipients internationally. These eye banks also 
provided more than 24,000 corneas for research and educational 
purposes.
  My home State of California is served by eight eye banks that 
recovered nearly 8,000 corneas last year, making it the largest source 
of corneal tissue for transplant and research in the country. These 
donations allowed thousands of Californians to regain their vision and 
resume the lives they had planned on living before disease or injury 
deprived them of their sight.
  In addition to improving their recipients' quality of life and giving 
comfort to donor families, corneal transplants also have a considerable 
economic impact on America's healthcare system. A recent EBAA analysis 
found that the net lifetime economic benefits of cornea transplants 
performed in 2017 will exceed $6 billion, due to the elimination of 
medical expenses related to vision care and the increased productivity 
of both the cornea recipients and their caregivers.
  I thank the Eye Bank Association of America for its decades-long 
dedication to the restoration of sight. I thank all of those who list 
themselves as an organ donor on their driver's license. I thank all of 
those who are willing to give of themselves for others. I want to 
reassure and thank their loved ones, because those who have passed have 
done a great good for society, for people who have lost their sight, 
and for future generations who will one day benefit from the research 
they have contributed to by donating their corneas.
  I encourage my colleagues to join me in urging all Americans to give 
the selfless gift of vision and life by registering to become eye, 
organ, and tissue donors.

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